Can Americans work on cruise ships?

Question

I want to know. I really would love to work on a ship and know its hard work. I would work with the youth area if i did. But many things on yahoo answers that i have read said that the major ships dont hire americans or canadians? Is this true? Because as a child i remember one of the youth staff aboard Voyager of the Seas was from the US and the Empress of the Seas had someone from Canada? So i am just wondering about Royal Caribbean mostly. Is it pretty easy to get a job on a cruise ship for the youth staff? I pretty much only want to work for Royal Caribbean though. Thanks a lot! God Bless You!

Answer 1

Yes they can work on cruise ships and I have seen crew members from the US on Ships.  What you have  to understand is that there are three basic types of jobs of cruise ships; concessions, crew and staff.   The concessionaires are those who run the shops and stores on ship and work in the spa. The crew members are those who do the manual labor of maintaining the ship, housekeeping functions and other such tasks.  Then you have the crew members who would be from the captain and his first officers on down to the people who work at the purser's desk and the entertainers.

Most people see most often the crew members because they are servicing cabins and providing wait services.  And most of those people are from places other than the US because the wages for crew members are very low, much lower than people from the US will accept.  But the staff and concessions are salaries employees, rather than being paid by gratuities and so the people who work those positions come from many places, including the US.

You should contact the Royal Caribbean cruise line employment offices and get first hand information.  You should also contact Celebrity because the two lines are under the same parent company and the also have a new cruise line called  Azamara.  All three are the same company.

CELEBRITY:

http://www.celebritycruises.com/home .

ROYAL CARIBBEAN:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/gohome.d.....

AZAMARA:

http://www.azamaracruises.com/07/azamara...

Answer 2

off course...why not?!?!?!  lol...

i fyou would want to work with kids then i would think you should try for the disney cruise lines because its much more better and because the royal carribean is a cruse line for gramas...youll only find those people on those kid off ship!!        lol...sry

Answer 3

Not true, especially in the positions your are talking about. A vast majority of Caribbean cruise vacationers speak English to they try to hire people who are fluent in English for those job that require a lot of verbal contact (cruise director and assistants and those who handle the children). That gives Canadians and Americans an advantage in those positions. For all the other positions, from dining servers to room stewards, they tend to hire people from third world nations. The reason is simple, the low pay is not low to them and they are willing to work the long hours for extended periods of time (usually six months on before an extended time off) Typically Americans are adverse to hard work for long periods of time if they don't get weekends off. (Western Europeans are even worse) So in those position you will find Americans at an extreme disadvantage.

Answer 4

yes I was on a hawaiian cruise on norwegian cruise lines and most of the staff where americans

Answer 5

You won't find many Americans or Canadians on cruise ship staff because not many are willing to work for the low wages paid the the cruise lines.

To get more info about working on a cruise ship, try going to the different cruise lines' websites.  Many of them have info about employment.

Answer 6

Yes cruise lines employ americans. You can go to the cruise line web site and click on employment opportunities.

Hope this helps, you can also look for more info at this great yahoo group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Cruiseaddi...

Answer 7

you have to have some kind of experience working with youth groups to be able to get a job on the ship. and YES, they do hire many Americans, trust me, i worked on a cruise ship a few months ago. Its not completely true about the low wages, it just depends on what company you go to. so unless you have youth group experience, you're not gonna get the job. the only jobs you can get on cruise ships without any experience are the housekeeping and waiter/server positions.  i hope you know what you're getting yourself into though...when you get hired, you have to sign a contract saying you will work on the ship for anywhere from 5-7 months without going home. basically, you live on the ship for 5-7 months, and typical work weeks are 75+ hours. Really think about it!

Answer 8

I think you need to do some more research on this subject. I do not think you know what you are getting into. I suggest you talk to some people and get more information. I do not feel you have all the information. Getting a job on a ship is not easy and there are all lot of scammers who will have you pay for a list or inside info for getting hired.

Answer 9

Yes americans do work on cruise ships.  I have done two contracts with Carnival and leave next week for first contract now with Royal Caribbean and i am american.  go to royals website and you should be able to find the info you are looking for to get hired.  It isn't as much work as some people will try to tell you.  i have gone thru it now for both carnival and royal and its pretty much the same thing for both.  good luck!!

Answer 10

Try Disney cruise ships.

Answer 11

Yes Americans work on cruise ships.  I am from Oregon, and just got off the Holland America Ship MS Noordam.

The pay isn't great, but you get to travel and you get paid to do it. The work isn't as hard as you think.

DO NOT GO TO ANY AGENTS TO FIND A JOB!!!!!

DO NOT PAY ANYONE FOR VISAS OR TRAVEL DOCUMENTS.

Go to the cruise ship sites and search for employment under thier search thingy.